Welcome From The Dean

Welcome from the Dean

Welcome to the Peter A. Allard School of Law. It is a great privilege and a wonderful challenge to serve as the law school’s eighth Dean.

The law school at UBC emerged from the long shadow of World War II, founded with the ambition of educating returning veterans. The first students began their studies in 1945 and graduated in 1948. Those early years forged the creative and entrepreneurial spirit of the school. They also coincided with a revolution in international human rights law and the emergence of international criminal law, two of the areas that are now vital to the global pursuit of justice.

The law school is situated on UBC’s magnificent Point Grey Campus, located on the traditional, ancestral, un-ceded territory of the Musqueam people. The law school is proud to be a leader in Indigenous legal education in North America, having one of the highest enrollments of Indigenous law students in Canada. Indigenous legal traditions are a vital area of legal innovation for Canada in the twenty-first century, and our students are prepared to be part of this future.

Much has changed in the now 70 years since the law school opened its doors. Generations of alumni have become leaders in the legal profession, in business, in government, and in civil society—in the province, the nation, and around the world. We are enormously proud of our graduates, and are grateful for their exceptional on-going involvement in our community. In 2015, the law school at UBC was named the Peter A. Allard School of Law in recognition of the transformative gift of one of those alumni. This gift secures the future for the new students just entering our doors, and for generations of students to come.

The great joy of being Dean of the Allard School of Law comes from the daily interactions with colleagues from around the world who are at the forefront of the intellectual development of the law, with students whose passion for justice drives them to extraordinary achievements, and with alumni who demonstrate the values of justice and service that are the foundation of the legal profession.